Monceaux.org

We were on our way to Atlanta yesterday morning, but my cousin, Amber-9 yrs old, was injured in a car wreck. We are currently at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport with her. Her dad was taking her and her sister (Alizabeth) to school. Amber was in the front seat and hit the windshield/dashboard. She has severe head injuries, so we ask that you please pray for her. She is in critical, but stable condition. She has a fractured skull, the right side of her brain is bruised, and severe facial breakage. The eye doctor is hoping that her sight wasn't affected. He seems to think right now that it will be ok. As of last night, her brain wasn't swelling, but they still placed a drainage tube in to help just in case. She had developed a fever. They also started giving her blood late last night. They have her pretty much knocked out, but she did squeeze her mother's hand while we were in there yesterday afternoon. She has movement in both arms and legs. She has no injures to the chest area. She made it through the last 24 hours fairly well, but the next 24 hours are very critical for her. Her dad and Alizabeth were not injured. We are getting ready to go back to the hospital. I will update whenever I can.

Update – October 1 at 2:30am: Things with Amber are still the same. The pressure in her head went up to 22 tonight. They don't want it over 20, but she had several visitors and they had done a few things to her. She squeezed her Nanny's hand tonight. Her right knee is swollen, but they x-rayed it and there is no bone damage. They said it could be muscle or ligament. The CT scan this morning showed a spot on the brain stem. They were going to check it again this afternoon, but we didn't hear anything. The nurse said tonight that when you don't hear anything that is good news. She said that 2-3 days are usually the bad days. Her brain is swollen, and the nurse said that is normal. She said tomorrow could be a bad day for her, since it will be the 3rd day. Her face was a little more swollen today. She did react when they were cleaning out her nose, but the nurse said they were not hurting her. Karri was upset because she was afraid that she could feel it and wasn't able to tell them. She doesn't want her to know she is in pain and not be able to tell them. The nurse assured her that she was reacting to it, but that she will not remember it and that they were not hurting her. If you would like to send a card to her, send it to Amber Dooley, LSU Medical Center, PICU, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA 71103. And, please continue to pray for her she has a long way to go.

UPDATE – 10/02/06 at 12:11am:
Grammy, Emma Grace, Alizabeth, and I are back at the hotel. Wes stayed at the hospital. I am talking to him on aim. He is in ICU with Amber. Her pressure has gone down to zero, which is GREAT. They said if that keeps going they may take the tube out tomorrow. Today, they found out she has a fracture collarbone and bruised lungs. They were concerned about pneumonia, but the dr said her lungs were clear. They are turning her side to side. They told them tonight that may start bringing her out of the drug-induced coma by Friday. Wes set up a website for them to post and to let all of her friends post. It is through our website. You can access it by going to www.monceaux.org/Amber. Jeffrey, her dad, is making post, so please stop by and leave Amber a message. Well, I am going to get ready for bed. We will be heading home tomorrow. Please remember to keep Amber in your prayers.

We made it back Thursday night, Friday morning around 1:30. We left Houston around 5:15. Traffic wasn't too bad. We got great news in Houston. All test were negative however, Wes does have two kidney stones. Kidney stones are not something to be too happy about, but it is better than what it could have been. We have to go back in three months, which will fall around Christmas. Emma Grace loves her new chair her daddy got her while we were in Houston. We thought we were going to have to ship it back, but once we got it out of the box it fit perfectly in the back seat. Another reason we decided not to ship was the fact that it was going to cost $36 to ship. It didn't even cost that much. The chair might be the cause of many bruises, b/c she likes to stand up in it. She has taken a few more steps today, so we think she is getting closer to walking. We bought her a thing that is called walking wings. It looks like a back belt supporter or whatever you called it. It is suppose to support her so we don't pull on her arms and we don't have to bend over to walk with her. However, she looks like a puppet. She goes limped when we put it on her and swings back and forth. I am thinking we are going to return it back to Babies R Us on our trip to Atlanta next weekend. We got her part of her Halloween costume from a Halloween store in Houston. I put it on her tonight and she wasn't too happy with part of it, so we will have to work on it before Halloween. She was so cute, but she is always cute in whatever she is wearing. Well, I guess that is all for now.

We are getting ready to pack the car, so we can be ready to go when we leave the dr's office. We went shopping yesterday. Emma Grace got lots of cooler weather clothes. Her daddy bought her a chair that we may have to ship back. She looks so cute in it. Guess that is all for now. We gotta go “try” to load the car. We will not be back until late tonight, so I post the test results late tonight or in the morning.

We are in Houston. We made it here about 6:30 yesterday. Wes got his blood drawn after we got here and then we went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. Wes had his PET and CT scans today. Since he hadn't been able to eat since 11:30 this morning, he wanted to go to Saltgrass. On our way back from there, Dr. Fayad called to let him know that his PET scan looked good. He has never done that before, so it was kind of strange that he called. He told him that his CT scan results were not back yet. Well, it is time for bed. It has been a long day. Emma Grace isn't ready to go though. She would rather watch Fresh Prince of Belaire. She loves that show especially the opening music. She has taken a few steps, and has explored everything in the room. She loves playing with the safe and dishwasher buttons. She has been a little showoff since we have been here. Everybody that walks by speaks to her, and they comment on how beautiful she is. Don't know what our plans are for tomorrow. We might go out shopping or to the zoo. Until next time…..

Wes didn't have the scope done on Friday. The doctor decided not to do b/c we were going to Houston next week, and he didn't want to do something that might cause the scans to give false readings. He also didn't do it b/c Wes' bladder is irritated and his left kidney is backwards. The bladder irritation could be from the chemo he took, and they can give me some medicine to fix that. The kidney issue could be one of two things. It could have been like that his whole life, or it could be a tumor pressing making it backwards. The doctor said a backwards kidney can also cause kidney stones, but he didn't see any. He wasn't too happy with St. Francis radiology dept., b/c there was only one good film and two or three other films that were not totally black from the IVP x-ray he had back in August. He wants Wes to bring pictures of his CT scan from Houston when we get back. We leave tomorrow for Houston.

Emma Grace still isn't walking. She will only take about one or two steps. We went to Abby's birthday party yesterday. She slept through most of it, but she loved the big room it was held in. She could crawl everywhere with no barriers. She also loved playing with Mallory, Tammy's friend's little girl. She is starting to not really like baby food, and she LOVES mashed potatoes. She loves to throw her pacie or sippie cup when she gets finished drinking it. Grammy has made some impressive moves here lately.

We are holding off on the house building. The guy I talked to about building it gave us a good price, but the interest rates are so high. So, we decided to wait until we can save a little more money or we would just be eating mac n cheese. (if we could afford that)

We are planning a trip to Atlanta at the end of the month. Emma Grace will get to attend her first baseball game however, the Braves did not do very well this year. We are also planning to go to the Georgia Aquarium, which she will love. Oh, and I think, we might even see Brad while we are there.

Guess that is all for now. Gotta get business washing up clothes and getting stuff ready for tomorrow. Please pray that we get great news…..

Well, Emma Grace took two steps last night. They were steps done alone, but coached by Grammy and daddy. Oh, well, they were two steps. Today is Emma Grace's 14-month Birthday. She and I are going to talk to a builder in a few hours to see if we have to start Emma Grace to working.. We have our plans basically drawn out. The guy just needs to do the final copy. I think we are up to just under 2300 or maybe a little over, not including porches. Wes had a few more problems over the weekend, so he has to have a scope done next Friday, not to his likening. Then, we leave Monday going to Houston. Since the lovely cotton gin has started up across the street, the dust has decided to settle in my head, but thanks to tylenol multi-symptom allergy medicine it seems to be better.

Emma Grace is still not walking, but as I said earlier, she did take two steps last night. She loves to talk and loves to say her name. She said Auntie Kim's name the other day, which made Aunt Kim's day. When she sees her Grammy, her mouth comes open and she says ohohohoh gramgramgram, and gets all excited. She even knows Grammy's car, which she should since she has lived most her life in it. She has started to climb on top of boxes that we use as barriers. She likes to eat EVERYTHING or chew on it should I say. She chewed a HUGE chunk out of her baby bed, so Wes put a strong plastic covering over it. It seems to work for now. Her Grandaddy bought her a GIANT pumpkin from Michael's. It is like the snow globe he bought her for Christmas. She loves it. We use the box as a barrier, and she will go over to it and talk and talk to it. When she saw it in the store, she was so EXCITED. Thank goodness for Michael's 50% Labor Day coupon. We are currently working on her Halloween costume. I would like to have it made when we go back to Houston, so Mr. Hector can take some pictures of her in it. Well, I guess that is all. Please pray that everything will be fine with Wes' scope and his test results from Houston. Until next time……..